A few days ago, I cut down a heap of understorey bush known as kawakawa or pepper tree (Macropiper excelsum) and threw it in where the sheep were grazing, to be burnt when the time comes.

It is aromatic and very hot to the taste. I soon discovered the sheep will eat it – not entirely surprising because when I had my neighbor’s cattle in here some years ago, they also ate it.

It was highly regarded by the Maori people as a remedy both external and internal for many ailments – abdominal pains (especially digestive), rheumatic pains, toothache, kidney, bladder and urinary complaints, and as a blood purifier. As a poultice it was used for boils, bruises, eczema, toothache and badly infected wounds. In her book ‘Medicines of the Maori‘, Christina Macdonald cites a case that she knew personally of an old man who bound up the nearly-severed top of one of his fingers with kawakawa leaves – and the finger healed quite easily.

When used in steam baths, the effect was “stimulating, exciting the salivary glands, kidneys and bowels”.

Many Maori people still use it today, and I boiled up some leaves to try it as a drink – much more mild, warm, and pleasant-tasting than I had expected: definitely added to the ‘drink more often’ list! I’m about to try making a healing ointment out of it, too.

Branches were burned by the Maori to keep away insects from rows of sweet potato seedlings, and more recently by explorers, surveyors and hunters to keep mosquitoes and sandflies out of their camps. One asks – why are we messing with deadly chemicals when the Creator has made this stuff available to us? (And we all know the answer to that.)

The leaves of this plant are invariably covered with shotholes, and when I was illustrating ‘Taketakerau The Millennium Tree‘ I finally found out (after quite a bit of hunting) that these holes are caused by the nocturnal caterpillars of the Kawakawa Looper moth (Cleora scriptaria). You will find if you research it, that many people can tell you the holes are caused by caterpillars (big deal!), but it was hard in 2011 to find a source that would actually identify the species. There are far more illustrations of Cleora scriptaria on the net now.

Needless to say, though I’m surrounded by this stuff, I’ve never seen either a moth or a caterpillar in daylight. When I did the artwork for the book, I took the liberty of painting the moth on the leaves of the plant, in the subdued light of a storm.

Many people have commented how appropriate the use of this plant is for a painting entitled ‘Endurance’ that reflects on the long life and turbulent times of a tree now more than 2016 years old. See also http://taketakerau.com/painting32.html

Yachts off the coast in the heat of a Far North summer’s day. But there’s a bit of a breeze and all the boaties are reveling in being out on the water.

This scene could be in many places, though the red tree blossoms give a clue. These are pohutukawa trees – our NZ Christmas tree that flowers in the summer, from the Far North to the Bay of Plenty.

As you can see, there are 2 rocks (called Arrow Rocks) sticking out of the ocean in this bay, and over recent years they have become an important scientific resource for geologists, because the span of geological time covered in these rocks is unique.

A news report in 2010 stated, “There are not many places on Earth where geologists can study a sequence of rocks spanning the Permian and Triassic periods. So it is little wonder that they keep returning to Arrow Rocks near Tauranga Bay. The island has fossils and sediments which date between 252 million and 292 million years ago and have the potential to offer clues about the planet’s biggest species extinction event.”

Japanese geologists realized the scientific importance of Arrow Rocks in 1999 and visit annually accompanied these days by scientists from the NZ Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

This painting is available as prints and on other products. Also, I have just turned it into a Mighty Wallet – here is how the design shapes up:

Like this:

While on the subject of summer and the sea, here’s another Mighty Wallet design I’ve just released – Dolphin Fantasy, which shows 3 Dolphins flying through the air above a distant rural landscape / seascape.

This work started life as a wet-on wet acrylic, and after it dried I added the dolphins. I had been reading a book about dolphins, and that, plus frequent reports of the many pods that circle our coastline and visit holidaymakers and tourist boats, inspired this work.

As the painting came together, I realized these dolphins were in fact having fun far above the sea and land, and that added the extra spice of fantasy to this artwork.

Here it is on the Wallet:

A great breath of spring and summer to carry in your pocket! For more details, click on the images.

In the sidebar I have a link to the original artwork on Society6, where it is available as prints, iPhone cases, cushions and many more products.

The ingenious origami construction was and is the original folded wallet made of Tyvek® designed by Terrence Kelleman. The stitch-less design reinforces the material’s own strength and allows these very slim wallets to instantly expand and adapt to your own personal storage needs. The Mighty Wallet® will expand right before your eyes.

This original artwork design is called ‘Flowering of the Universe‘. It pays tribute to the subtle threads that tie together all things, great and small…

Because of the slim, lightweight and water resistant features, you can take these cool wallets anywhere. They make great “night out” wallets for a slender silhouette and the writable surface conveniently acts as a quick note pad on the go.

Here in New Zealand Christmas means high summer, and Christmas Dinner is often held on the beach, on a deck, or outdoors in front of a holiday home overlooking the sea.

We are fortunate in NZ because our beaches don’t get crowded, as in many countries overseas. Though beaches are not my ‘dream location’, I really do enjoy a beach that is deserted – a back to the wilderness type of thing. And I’ve got one or two fond memories of riding horses on beaches of this kind.

I created this painting after I moved away from Wellington, and I think the inspiration was the south Wellington coastline – Terawhiti with Makara behind – which also can be seen from the Inter-Island Ferry. As many will know, the Inter-Island Ferry crossing on a good day is a real treat, as the south Wellington coastline gives way to the fascinating convolutions of the Marlborough Sounds coast with its multitude of bays and inlets.

In this picture the atmosphere of the weather IS indeed benign, and if it were not for the lack of Pohutukawa trees lining the cliffs and flocks of sailing boats in the bay, it could well be the Bay of Islands, close to where I live now in what we euphemistically call ‘the winterless north’.

I think what makes this painting work so well is not only the composition, but also the colors. In a sense, this is a limited palette – but it doesn’t feel like that, and probably the muted, olive green shades have turned out to be the perfect foil for the rich blues and orange.

Acrylic on paper. For more details about the work, click on the images.